MLB 2K7 Review

This game isn't even ready for the minors.

Hot off its abysmal Wiffle Ball (DS) game, Skyworks Technologies has decided to step up to the majors and lay their same lack of flair and dysfunctional controls on Major League Baseball 2K7. And while the game, using the same engine and many of the same gameplay mechanics as Wiffle Ball, isn't quite the embarrassment that game was, it's still a pretty lousy experience and sure to disappoint any DS baseball fan.

The game features four basic modes - Play Ball! (a quick play mode), Playoffs, Allstar Game and Homerun Derby. The first two modes are identical, except that progress can be saved and loaded in the Playoffs. The Allstar Game pits the best of the American League against the best of the National League, although every player in this game plays pretty much the same, so this mode is pretty identical to the standard games. Homerun Derby is the player's batter of choice knocking balls out of the park until they get 10 strikes, at which point a high score is recorded. And that's all there is here. No seasonal mode, no player trading, none of the depth or realism of any baseball games to come across the plate in the past 2 decades.

The main game features 32 teams to select from: all the National and American League teams, as well as two Allstar teams, which are strange to pit against standard teams since they share the same members (not to mention its redundancy with the Allstar Game mode). Although the player can select which team to use, which players to put in and which to leave on the bench, there doesn't seem to be much (any?) difference between players when batting or out in the field. This game is MLB in name only, with some of the most boring (and occasionally sloppy) gameplay to ever hit the majors in a handheld baseball rendition.

The game alternates player control between pitching and batting, of course. When pitching, the player selects between four pitch types (fastball, curveball, changeup and slider) and then selects where in the strike zone (or out of it) to pitch the ball. There's no golf meter or tricky play mechanic to adhere to while pitching, just the decision of which pitch to use and where to land the ball. For the sadists out there, you can bean batters, but unfortunately there's no animation of them getting hit.

The opponent's AI, however, is just too dumb to make pitching enjoyable. Whether the batters swing or not has little to do with how good the pitch is. If perfect strikes are thrown, they'll let about half of them by. If balls are thrown, they'll swing at a good percentage of them. It's too easy to exploit the game by throwing balls just outside the strike zone continuously, creating lots of misses and fouls.

Almost as idiotic though is the pitcher, who plays like he's had a few too many drinks before the game. Out of nowhere, some pitches will completely ignore the player-indicated direction and get flung 20 feet from the catcher. I'm all for realism in games but forcing botched pitches on the player that can't be prevented, that result in the pitcher throwing the ball square between 3rd base and home plate, is just lame, and the ensuing runs are just salt in the wound. If there's going to be a system that allows for botched pitches, there needs to be a game mechanic to prevent it. It's not fair to force mistakes on an able player, and it happens way more often in this game than I've seen in any MLB game.

Picking off runners attempting to steal bases is somewhat fun. The player begins a pitch by tapping the A button but at any time during the windup, one of the four face buttons can be tapped to throw to a base instead. AI runners attempt to steal pretty regularly, and unfortunately their dumb AI causes runners to try and steal occupied bases. But the mid-pitch pick off is still an interesting mechanic (one of the very few in this game).

When batting, the player selects the area of the strike zone they'd like to swing in and then waits in hope that the pitch is somewhere around that area. This doesn't make any sense because pre-deciding where to swing only gives the player the option to swing or not swing when the ball actually reaches them. Without the ability to change up a swing mid-pitch, it feels unfair and results in plenty of strikes.

Hitting the ball is a tough challenge, but never seems too unfair. Because of varying ball direction and speeds passing over the plate, the player may have to swing as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher's glove or a half second later. With practice it can be mastered, though, and soon the player's only enemies are the constant pop flies that out batter after batter.

Graphically the game isn't as atrocious to look at as Wiffle Ball was, but it's not much better. The field (only one field in this game) and all backgrounds are dull, repetitious and lifeless. Batter sprites are large and animate fairly well, but they're also mushy and lack detail. Outfield sprites look decent enough, but their animations are awkward and unnatural, as if everyone on the team is playing with a limp. Scoreboards and stats all read clearly, but the game is severely lacking in presentation with boring interface screens and bland, Photoshop-y options. The entire game is lacking in art direction and makes things as boring visually as they are in gameplay.

There's almost no music in the game but the music that's here doesn't really match the brand well. The sound effects fare better, with believable audio for the crowd, pitching and hitting. The umpire is completely unintelligible, but what else is new? The game desperately needed more sound effects as gameplay indicators (when a fielder grabs a ball there's no audio cue, so it's difficult to tell when a grounder has been collected). But in all, the soundscape here isn't awful, just a little empty.

The game features multiplayer, so long as both players have a copy of the game. Players can each pick a team and then step up to the plate for 9 innings. It's functional but the gameplay is so weak and uninvolving that playing against a friend doesn't feel much different than playing against the game's AI.

The Verdict

This game is better than Wiffle Ball DS, but it's not much of a step up. Skyworks has embarrassed themselves less with this game than that atrocity. However this is a major league game and as such, 2K games should have put a more able development team behind it. The gameplay and art are consistently bland and while nothing's completely broken in this game, the real challenge is staying awake through nine boring innings. There is no reason to buy this game; anyone who's ever played a baseball game will be disappointed by it. And DS owners will have to remain waiting for a truly great baseball experience on the DS.